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If people don’t back independent journalism, it will die
Right now, our team is doing the best, most consequential reporting we’ve ever done, keeping our millions of readers well-informed, inspired, and engaged—but we simply can’t do this work without your dedicated support.
If people don’t back independent journalism, it will die—it’s as simple as that. Will you make a gift to our Summer Campaign and keep the fearless, independent journalism of Common Dreams alive and strong?
In California: Daniel Kessler, 350.org Media Campaigner, dk@350.org, 510-501-1779
On the Road with Bill McKibben: Jamie Henn, 350.org Communications Director, jamie@350.org, 415-601-9337
Bill McKibben & 350.org Kick-Off Nationwide "Do The Math" Tour to Connect Extreme Weather, Climate Change and the Fossil Fuel Industry
Tour will Launch a New Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign
SEATTLE
As the East Coast continues to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, leading environmentalist Bill McKibben and the global climate campaign 350.org are kicking off a 21-city nationwide Do the Math tour that will connect the dots between extreme weather, climate change, and the fossil fuel industry.
"It's time to start holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for the wholesale damage they're doing to our planet," said McKibben. "If Sandy showed us anything, it's that the hour is late and the need is urgent--but the fossil fuel industry has terrified our politicians and the result has been two decades of inaction. We need that to change."
The tour will launch a new chapter in the fight against climate change: direct confrontation with the fossil fuel industry. At the heart of the effort will be a new campaign to push colleges and universities to divest their endowments from the fossil fuels.
Part TED-talk, part old-time revival meeting, the tour has already sold out stops in Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Boston. Hundreds of students will be attending stops in big college towns like Madison, Wisconsin, Durham, North Carolina, and Boulder, Colorado.
McKibben was driven to organize the Do The Math tour after watching the string of extreme weather events that ravaged much of the US this year, from the devastating wildfires in Colorado, to record drought across much of the country, to the seemingly endless heat-wave that broke over 17,000 temperature records.
While the abnormal weather helped drive America's concern over climate change to its highest level since 2008 -- 70 percent of Americans now say they believe global warming is a reality -- the message didn't seem to break through to politicians. The words climate change weren't mentioned a single time during the presidential debates for the first time since 1988.
McKibben points his finger at the fossil fuel industry as the key culprit. "The fossil fuel industry has bought one party in Washington, DC and scared the other into silence," he said. "Unless we can weaken the power of this industry, we'll never see the sort of climate progress we need."
The Do The Math tour will make it clear why the fossil fuel industry is so determined to block progress. As McKibben wrote in a groundbreaking article in Rolling Stone this June, the climate crisis can be boiled down into three simple numbers: 2degC, 565 gigatonnes, and 2,795 gigatonnes.
Even the most conservative governments in the world have agreed that global warming should be limited to no more than 2degC. Scientists say to meet that target we can only emit an additional 565 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But the fossil fuel industry has 2795 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in their reserves, nearly five times too much -- and everyday they spend millions of dollars looking for more.
"What this math shows is that the fossil fuel industry is a rogue industry," said McKibben. "You can have a healthy fossil-fuel balance sheet, or a relatively healthy planet - but now that we know the numbers, it looks like you can't have both."
McKibben and 350.org are modelling their new campaign against the fossil fuel industry on the 1980s anti-apartheid movement that used divestment as a key tactic to pressure the South African government. In the end, 155 colleges and universities and a number of pension funds, cities, and corporations disinvested from the country.
In a video he recorded for the Do The Math tour, South Africa's Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the anti-apartheid movement, explained the rationale for turning to divestment as a key strategy to fight climate change.
"The divestment movement played a key role in helping liberate South Africa. The corporations understood the logics of money even when they weren't swayed by the dictates of morality," says Tutu. "Climate change is a deeply moral issue too, of course. Here in Africa we see the dreadful suffering of people from worsening drought, from rising food prices, from floods, even though they've done nothing to cause the situation. Once again, we can join together as a world and put pressure where it counts."
The campaign has already chalked up its first divestment victory, with Unity College officially announcing it would divestment from fossil fuels on Monday, November 5.
"I am proud to be a part of the 350.org program of divestment, and I am especially proud of the Unity College Board of Trustees for their willingness to make this affiliation," wrote Unity College President Stephen Mulkey in an oped announcing the move. "Like the colleges and universities of the 1980's that disinvested from apartheid South African interests - and successfully pressured the South African government to dismantle the apartheid system - we must be willing to exclude fossil fuels from our investment portfolios."
Last year, Hampshire College in Massachusetts passed a sustainable investment policy that effectively divested the college endowment from fossil fuels. 350.org is looking to build on these early victories and spread the movement across the country over the coming months.
Taking on the fossil fuel industry is a natural evolution for 350.org, the global climate campaign that McKibben founded with six Middlebury College students in 2008. In 2009, the group organized more than 5,200 rallies in 183 that CNN called "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history." In 2011, 350.org helped lead a successful campaign to push President Obama to deny the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, getting 1,253 people arrested at the White House in August and then circling the property with 15,000 people in November.
"Over the last three years, we've learned a lot about how to use the internet to coordinate a distributed grassroots network," said 350.org co-founder and executive director, May Boeve. "This year, we'll be going at the fossil fuel industry from all angles: campus divestment, mass mobilization, and online campaigns."
The Do The Math tour will begin on November 7 in Seattle, Washington. Beginning the day after the election is intentional explained McKibben, "Congress has essentially turned into a customer service arm for the fossil fuel industry, putting environmentalists on hold for 20 years with the beltway equivalent of cheesy Muzak. It's time to talk directly to management."
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
International Court of Justice Vice President Julia Sebutinde recently told members of her church in Uganda that "the Lord is counting on me to stand on the side of Israel."
A global legal advocacy group on Monday called on the International Court of Justice in The Hague to "immediately remove" ICJ Vice President Julia Sebutinde from the ongoing Gaza genocide case following the publication of remarks in which the judge said that God wants her to support Israel.
Santiago Canton, secretary general of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, sent a letter to ICJ President Justice Yuji Iwasawa citing an article published by the Ugandan newspaper Daily Monitor, which reported that Sebutinde delivered remarks on August 10 at Watoto Church in Kampala.
Sebutinde discussed the ICJ's January 26, 2024 issuance of six provisional measures, including orders for Israel to do everything possible to prevent genocidal acts, ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Gazans, and preserve evidence of Israeli crimes committed in the strip. The Ugandan was the sole member of the 17-judge panel to vote against all six measures.
"There are now about 30 countries against Israel," Sebutinde said. "The Lord is counting on me to stand on the side of Israel. The whole world was against Israel, including my country."
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Indeed, in January 2024 the Ugandan government issued a statement clarifying that Sebutinde's votes were her "individual and independent opinion" and did "not in any way reflect the position of the government of the Republic of Uganda."
Sebutinde told members of her church—which gained international infamy as its pastor pushed for the current nationwide law punishing "aggravated homosexuality" with a death sentence—that Israel's annihilation and starvation of Gaza is a sign of the biblical "End Times," a period of great suffering followed by the "second coming" of Jesus Christ, a climactic battle between the forces of good and evil, and God's judgment of all people living and dead.
Many Christian Zionists believe that the restoration of Israel as a nation—which occurred in 1948, largely via the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from Palestine—is a prerequisite for Christ's "return."
"I have a very strong conviction that we are in the End Times," Sebutinde told Watoto's congregation. "The signs are being shown in the Middle East. I want to be on the right side of history. I am convinced that time is running out. I would encourage you to follow developments in Israel. I am humbled that God has allowed me to be a part of the last days."
Canton's letter states: "Should it be confirmed that these are accurate quotes of her remarks, the International Commission of Jurists considers that Vice President Sebutinde's continued role in the context of ongoing proceedings before the court, such as South Africa v. Israel, and at least any other proceedings concerning Israel or the state of Palestine, would be profoundly damaging to the court's impartiality, propriety, and integrity, or to perceptions thereof, as well as to the to public confidence in the court."
"These remarks raise serious concerns as to whether her decisions were taken solely on the basis of facts and in accordance with the law, but rather may have also been taken under 'improper influences,' specifically her religious and political beliefs regarding Israel and the purported approaching of 'End Times,'" the letter continues.
"While the vice president certainly enjoys the right to freedom of expression, this right is not absolute, and there are certain limitations on the right that are particularly applicable to members of the judiciary," Canton stressed. "I therefore respectfully urge you and the court to conduct an investigation into these allegations, and if substantiated, undertake remedial actions."
"In the interim," he added, "I would request that you act to immediately remove Vice President Sebutinde from participating further in proceedings in the South Africa v. Israel case."
Michael Becker, a professor at Trinity College Dublin's School of Law and former ICJ associate legal officer, toldMiddle East Eye that "it is never a good idea for an ICJ judge to share their own views on a pending case in a public forum."
"It is worse to suggest that your position is to be 'on the side' of a specific party to the case," he added.
Sebutinde has also come under fire for apparently plagiarizing much of her dissenting opinion in the ICJ's July 2024 advisory opinion that Israel's occupation of Palestine, including Gaza, is an illegal form of apartheid that must end as soon as possible.
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South Africa filed its genocide case against Israel in December 2023 and subsequently submitting thousands of pages of evidence including alleged statements of genocidal intent by prominent Israelis including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a fugitive from the International Criminal Court wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation.
More than two dozen nations and regional blocs are supporting South Africa's case, which is not expected to produce a ruling for years.
Israel's 690-day assault and siege on Gaza have left at least 230,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing. Israeli forces are ramping up Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza amid a growing famine that has killed hundreds of people, many of them children.
One observer warned that the president's move may backfire, as the discovery process of Cook's suit could "find out if the White House ordered a Trump loyalist to move against her."
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook will file a lawsuit challenging US President Donald Trump's attempt to fire her, the economist's lawyer said Tuesday.
Attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement that Trump "has no authority" to fire Cook, a nominee of former President Joe Biden who has served on the Fed Board of Governors since 2022 and whose term is not set to expire until 2038.
"His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis," Lowell added. "We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action."
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) last week launched a criminal investigation of alleged mortgage fraud committed by Cook, who is the third political foe accused of the same crime by Trump.
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte, a Trump appointee, in April referred New York Attorney General Letitia James to US Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, for criminal prosecution.
"His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis."
James, who is also represented by Lowell, successfully sued the president and theTrump Organization for fraud, resulting in a total of $450 million in penalties and interest and a 3-year ban on doing business in the state. Fraudulent activity for which the Trump Organization was found civilly liable included falsifying the valuations of numerous properties. Last week, a state appellate panel upheld the court's findings that the Trump and his organization committed fraud but threw out the 2022 judgment, calling it "excessive."
Earlier this month, the DOJ also issued a subpoena to James as part of a probe into whether she violated Trump's civil rights by filing the fraud suit.
In May, Pulte also referred Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)—the lead manager of the first of Trump's two impeachments—to the DOJ.
Trump—who has repeatedly railed against "lawfare" and signed a day one executive order aimed at "ending the weaponization of the federal government—has called for the prosecution of James and Schiff.
Responding Monday to the president's allegations and effort to oust her, Cook said that "Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so."
"I will not resign," she added. "I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022."
Although a president may fire a Fed board member for cause, no such official has ever been removed in the body's 111-year history.
Critics say Trump's effort to terminate Cook is yet another attempt to bully the Fed and Chair Jerome Powell as his administration pushes the nation's central bank to lower interest rates.
However, some observers, including journalist Greg Sargent, warned Tuesday that Trump's firing of Cook could backfire, as her lawsuit's discovery process may allow Lowell "to find out if the White House ordered a Trump loyalist to move against her."
"The real question this raises is: Why is Pulte scrutinizing mortgages that just happen to belong to many high-profile opponents of Trump, and how did he come to select these targets?" Sargent wrote for The New Republic. "Experts recently told me that this use of the FHFA mortgage-fraud process appears highly suspect at best."
Adam Levitin, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, recently accused Pulte of "serving as the attack dog for Trump's attempts to gain control over the independent Federal Reserve Board" and targeting a "political enemies list."
"Pulte's actions are something that should scare all of us: If Cook, Schiff, and James can be targeted, what stops Pulte from threatening to review the mortgage application of anyone who speaks out?" Levitin added. "And if politicized mortgage application reviews are somehow okay, won't politicized [Internal Revenue Service] audits be next?"
"So in DC and Washington, states are going to have to make their own decision, but if somebody kills somebody... it's the death penalty, OK?" the president said during a cabinet meeting.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he wants to bring the death penalty back to Washington, DC, where capital punishment has been outlawed for more than 40 years.
In a cabinet meeting, Trump pitched bringing back the death penalty as part of his purported solution to what he claims is Washington, DC's violent crime crisis—one that isn't backed up by data.
"Anybody murders something in the capital? Capital punishment," Trump said. "If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, DC, we're going to be seeking the death penalty. And it's a very strong preventative. And everybody that's heard it agrees with it. I don't know if we're ready for it in this country... we have no choice. So in DC and Washington, states are going to have to make their own decision, but if somebody kills somebody... it's the death penalty, OK?"
Trump: "Anybody murders something in the capital -- capital punishment. Capital, capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the capital -- Washington DC -- we're going to be seeking the death penalty." pic.twitter.com/zDbQb2IGI7 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2025
It's unclear how Trump would implement the death penalty given that the DC Council abolished it in 1981 and DC voters overwhelmingly voted against a referendum to bring it back in 1992. However, the Trump administration has been trying to hit alleged criminals in the city with federal charges that could potentially expose them to harsher punishments.
Prosecutors in DC are permitted to seek the death penalty for certain crimes, including some homicides, but a jury has to agree to it.
Trump has a long history of glorifying the death penalty dating back to at least 1989, when he took out a full-page newspaper ad in which he declared it was time to "bring back the death penalty" to deal with crime in New York City.
The Trump ad was printed in the wake of five Black male teenagers—known popularly as the "Central Park Five"—being falsely accused of brutally beating and raping a woman in Central Park. Even after the five men were eventually exonerated years later, Trump refused to acknowledge their innocence and continued to insist upon their guilt, as recently as during the 2024 presidential election campaign.
In the last months of his first term, Trump went on what one publication called an "execution spree," ordering the federal executions of at least 13 people who were on Death Row.